Mercedes looks forward to a promising weekend in Oschersleben

The Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters returns to Germany for the final leg of the 2015 season, with the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben hosting the seventh round of the year. With an improved state of form, led by Pascal Wehrlein’s championship bid, Mercedes AMG has optimistic expectations for this weekend.

The C63 DTM might not be the best car in this year’s grid, but HWA AG driver Pascal Wehrlein has been the most consistent driver in the championship so far, having scored points in ten out of 12 races this year. This has allowed the 20-year old to be in strong contention for the Drivers’ title, defying the authority and experience of Audi’s Mattias Ekström.

Wehrlein is second in the table, just six points behind the Swede, and has big hopes for the Motorsport Arena: “I’m looking forward to Oschersleben after my win in Moscow. Of course, it was important to reduce the gap on Ekström in Russia. We now need to step up our efforts this weekend. I did very well on the track during the winter tests and took best time. Hopefully, I can repeat that on Saturday and Sunday.”

Mercedes AMG’s most experienced driver is Gary Paffett. The Briton thinks the strategy to achieve good results starts well before the races, and hopes the data gathered during the pre season testing will be useful to have a head start this weekend: “Oschersleben is a tough circuit. It’s quite bumpy with big kerbs and is very hard on car and drivers. It’s also very tight and twisty, so overtaking is also pretty difficult. For that reason, qualifying is going to be very important. However, we had a good pre-season winter test there. I’m looking forward to the weekend. If we can get the car set up right, we’ll have the chance to fight for a win.”

Robert Wickens started the season well, peaking at Norisring, where he had an impressive weekend and scored a new victory. The Canadian, however, hasn’t been able to get back in the points ever since, and hopes to make amend this weekend: “I’ve not been satisfied with my results in the most recent races and am determined to turn the situation around. I hope that everything will change in Oschersleben and that we can score some decent points.”

Mercedes AMG will be in the middle with regards to the Performance weights, being lighter than rivals Audi Sport, but significantly heavier than BMW. The Stuttgart squad, who presented the 2016 version of their C63 DTM last week, however, leads the Teams’ table thanks to the gooix/Original Teile pair at HWA AG, and is second in the Manufacturers’ championship, only 28 points behind than their Ingolstadt rivals, a difference that could be easily overturned in just one racing weekend.

Ullrich Fritz, Head of Mercedes AMG DTM, is optimistic about the prospects for this weekend, and hopes his men will continue in the fight for the championship after the races in Oschersleben: “Our goal for this weekend is to defend our good standing in the various rankings and to reduce the gap in the drivers’ and manufacturers’ standings if possible. Moscow has shown how the field is now tightly bunched. Everyone on our team is highly motivated and working very hard in order to get the maximum performance from themselves and our cars. The high level of commitment displayed by the entire team makes me feel positive about the weekend.”

The DTM on track action at the Motorsport Arena starts this Friday, with the First Free Practice session, scheduled for 15:15 CEST (GMT + 2).